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No Arrest in New York Subway

Chokehold Death, and Many Want to
Know Why
Law enforcement officials said they were still determining what
happened and whether to charge the man who choked Jordan
Neely, 30, to death.

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The subway car where Jordan Neely, 30, died after another rider held him in a
chokehold for several minutes. Paul Martinka

By Hurubie Meko , Chelsia Rose Marcius and Jonah E. Bromwich

May 4, 2023 Updated 6:25 p.m. ET

A video of a subway rider choking and killing a homeless man on a

New York City train lasted for four minutes.

What happened may seem clear to a layperson viewing the

footage.

The homeless man, Jordan Neely, is seen writhing, trying to get

free from the arms and legs of the other subway riders who are
pinning him down. As the minutes tick by early Monday afternoon
on a northbound F train in Manhattan, Mr. Neely visibly weakens
as the arm wrapped around his neck stays tight.

After he stops moving, the riders hold him down for about 50 more
seconds. He was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

But Mr. Neely’s attacker has not been arrested or charged with a
crime, raising questions about how such cases are processed by
New York’s legal system and angering many left-leaning politicians
and activists who have called the process racist. They have asked
why the subway rider, who appeared to be white, was not kept in
custody, and argued that were he Black, he would have been.

Law enforcement officials say the specific sequence of events and

the laws that may come into play make any potential criminal case
more complex than the video would suggest.

Mr. Neely, a Black man, had been screaming at passengers when

the other rider put him in a chokehold for several minutes, until he
went limp. He died from compression to his neck as a result of the Editors’ Picks
chokehold, according to a spokeswoman for the medical examiner,
Finding That
who ruled his death a homicide on Wednesday. (That ruling means Hudson Valley Gem
that the other passenger killed Mr. Neely, but is not a finding of for About $500,000:
Which House
legal culpability.) Would You Choose?

IKnew My Father
On Thursday, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York called the video of Cheated. Is My
Mr. Neely’s death “horrific” and said “there have to be Parents’ Divorce My
Fault?
consequences.”

“It became very clear he was not going to cause harm to these 36 Hours in
Asheville, N.C.
other people,” Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, said after an unrelated
event in Manhattan. “The video of three individuals holding him
down until the last breath was snuffed out of him, I would say was
a very extreme response.”

The man who choked Mr. Neely, a former marine who has not been
identified, is being represented by Raiser and Kenniff, a Manhattan
law firm whose founding partners were both in the armed services.

Thomas Kenniff, who was the Republican candidate for Manhattan

district attorney in 2021, said that the firm had been in contact with
the district attorney’s office and the Police Department about the
incident, but did not have any further comment.

The rider who choked Mr. Neely was interviewed by the police and
released, and a person familiar with the matter said the rider is not
viewed by the authorities as a flight risk.

If he is charged by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg,

the man who applied the chokehold would most likely argue that
the force he used against Mr. Neely was justified. Prosecutors
would have to prove that he used deadly force without having
believed that Mr. Neely was also using deadly force or was about
to.

And in order to show those things in court, prosecutors would need

to have interviewed every one of the many witnesses to the
encounter, to make sure that none of them would say something
that would hurt the prosecutors’ case. Prosecutors do not typically
bring cases unless they believe they can win them.

New York law imposes multiple deadlines on prosecutors once

they have charged someone with a felony. Under New York law, a
defendant in custody who has been charged with a felony must be
released within a strict time limit unless the district attorney wins
an indictment from a grand jury and alerts the court to that
indictment or the defendant has consented to a delay.

A second time limit comes into effect after an indictment, guiding

the amount of time prosecutors have to gather case material, share
it with defense lawyers and state that they are ready for a trial to

begin. If they do not meet their deadlines, or if the court finds there
is missing case material, the case can be dismissed for violating a
defendant’s right to a speedy trial.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office said it was still looking at a

variety of factors.

“As part of our rigorous ongoing investigation, we will review the

medical examiner’s report, assess all available video and photo
footage, identify and interview as many witnesses as possible and
obtain additional medical records,” Doug Cohen, a spokesman for
the office, said in a statement.

In a news release about Mr. Neely’s killing on Thursday, the police

asked for the public’s help in identifying witnesses they can
interview. Prosecutors have also encouraged witnesses to come
forward.

In the video, two other riders are seen helping to pin down Mr.
Neely while the former marine had his arms wrapped around his
neck. Other passengers looked on.

The responses of the people in the subway car and of law

enforcement officials have prompted fury among some New
Yorkers about the death of a Black man at the hands of a man who
appeared to be white.

“The initial response by our legal system to this killing is

disturbing and puts on display for the world the double standards
that Black people and other people of color continue to face,” the
City Council speaker, Adrienne Adams, said in a statement.

Mayor Eric Adams called Mr. Neely’s death “tragic,” but urged
patience as officials complete the investigation. “There’s a lot we
don’t know about what happened here,” he said earlier in the week.

Mr. Adams has asked the public and other leaders to be patient while law enforcement
officials investigate the death of Mr. Neely. Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

When charges are brought hastily when a full investigation has not
been conducted, they can be subject to second-guessing.

In another case from July , the Manhattan district attorney’s office

was compelled to drop a murder charge against a bodega clerk in
Harlem who fatally stabbed an attacker in his store. The clerk, Jose
Alba, 61, was initially charged by Mr. Bragg’s office with second-
murder.

Mr. Alba had argued with the girlfriend of the man he killed, Austin
Simon, 35, over paying for snacks for her 10-year-old daughter. Mr.
Simon went behind the bodega’s counter and shoved Mr. Alba.

Charges filed against Mr. Alba were criticized in some news

outlets, as public pressure against the district attorney’s office
mounted. Mr. Adams expressed support for Mr. Alba, saying at the
time that New Yorkers should not fear being attacked at their place
of employment. “There is a line that must be drawn when you are a
primary aggressor, and that is what I saw on the video,” he said.

Both the Adams and Hochul administrations have been using a

variety of tactics they say are meant to reduce crime and the
number of people who are mentally ill and living on New York’s
streets.

The mayor has increased the number of police officers on subway

platforms , directed mental health professionals and the police to
take more people in mental health crisis to hospitals — against
their will if necessary — and continued to tear down homeless
encampments. But the mayor and governor have also pushed
gentler strategies, including expanding the teams of counselors
that serve people with mental illness in streets and shelters.

Juan Alberto Vazquez, a freelance journalist who shot the video

inside the subway car, said that Mr. Neely had been yelling about
being hungry and thirsty. “‘I don’t mind going to jail and getting life
in prison,’” Mr. Vazquez recalled him saying. “‘I’m ready to die.’”

Another rider who had encountered Mr. Neely a couple of weeks

earlier said he had seemed upset, but had calmed down when she
offered him a few dollars. She said he had thanked her “for five
minutes.”

Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting.

Chelsia Rose Marcius covers breaking news and criminal justice for the Metro desk, with
a focus on the New York City Police Department.

Jonah E. Bromwich covers criminal justice in New York, with a focus on the Manhattan
district attorney's office, state criminal courts in Manhattan and New York City's jails.
@ jonesieman

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